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♪ is the "bill press show," live on your radio, and current tv. >> bill: all right. hearing from many of you on facebook and on twitter, and of course via email.

on duval patrick, judies says hey, bill caught only the last couple of hours last night, but i thought duval patrick knocked it out of the park your comment yeah he was good leads me to believe you have an issue i'm not aware of. no judy i thought he was great. duval patrick hit it out of the freaking park. so did julian castro and michelle obama. and bill the lesson that clint eastwood taught america if you are in a debate with an empty chair, you have got to win the debate. yeah, i guess that was the first debate of this election.

[♪ theme music ♪] >> bill: hey, good morning, everybody, good to see you this morning, and welcome to the "full court press," on this wednesday september 5th, coming to you live on current tv all the way across this great land of ours again from charlotte, north carolina capitol of the democratic national convention, and day two of the democratic

national convention. what a great night last night. julian castro, giving the keynote speech and michelle obama giving the most powerful speech of the night. we'll hear from elizabeth warren and vice president joe biden here tonight. what a difference between here and charlotte, and the lackluster event in tampa last week. we'll have randi weingarten. but first the current tv update from lisa ferguson. >> hi bill. good morning, everyone. the dny continues tonight with a knew round of speakers. elizabeth warren will stand united with president obama in protecting the middle class and take this opportunity to sell

herself to voters in massachusetts. of course warren up for the senate seat there against scott brown. and we'll hear from bill clinton, nancy pelosi sandra flock, and planned parenthood presidency seal richards. meanwhile this ad starts out looking like an obamaed a, but it is from the super pac. president obama says he will move us forward but where has he taken us so far? 23 million of us without full-time work. >> cross roads is spending $6.6 million onned a right now, attacking the forward slogan and asking if we are better off now than we were four years ago.

of course, democrats saying yes, we are. pointing to new jobs although not as many as we would like and pointing to the bumper sticker, bin laden is dead and the auto industry is alive. most buzz worthy tweets, posts and pontifications, from the entire social stratosphere including you. join in, tweet us, and you could be a part of our on-air and online coverage. brought to you by: spiriva handihaler. if you have copd like i do you know how hard it can be to breathe and what that feels like. copd includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. spiriva helps control my copd symptoms by keeping my airways open a full 24 hours. plus, it reduces copd flare-ups. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that does both.

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♪ >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation, on your radio, and on current tv, this is the bill press. ♪ >> bill: all right. well you know what, they may have marco rubio, but we have got the castro twins we have julian and joaquin. hello, everybody, welcome to the "full court press" on this

wednesday september 5th, welcome to charlie pierce, and welcome to day two of the democratic national convention. good to be here in charlotte and good to have you with us, as we cover the highlights of last night's opening night, what a great night with a tremendous lineup of speakers. it made you proud to be an american and democrat leading up to the keynote speech by julian castro, and then the powerful speech by closer of the evening and opener really of the convention by first lady michelle obama. we'll cover it every way here in the next two hours, and get you a chance to join the conversation, give us a call at 866-55-press. so we'll give you the team here. peter ogburn is with me in charlotte. >> i'm here. >> bill: party man, he was out -- i won't tell you what

time he got in this morning, and back in washington, d.c., dan henning, and the rest of the crew. thank you all for being there. and in studio with us one of the great labor leaders of this country, president of the american federation of teachers which is a sponsor of the "full court press" randi weingarten good to see you. >> it's greet be here. >> bill: you have been all over this place in the convention. >> we have been working. >> bill: i know, i was with you at the reception, and you said that was the sixth or seventh speech of the day? >> yeah, there's a lot. in some ways the american public sees what happens at the conventions between 10:00 and 11:00 at night. >> bill: yeah. >> but when you have this amount of people who are very focused, the party activists and all of

those around who are very focused on the election right now, it's really important to talk to people so we'll spend a lot of time during the day talking to people and walk about what our union is doing these days. the whole notion of solving problems and not winning arguments, and in some way what we're trying to do is is what the president has been talk about. answers not anger, it is finding what has made america the most pos perrous country in the world, because it creates opportunity for all americans. it enables as opposed to creating the anger and resentment. >> bill: right and training opportunities was a big theme last night. >> absolutely. >> bill: peter you will enjoy this, randi as well the president will be here this

evening, and tomorrow night is when he accepts the nomination at the banc of america stadium, god willing, but yesterday he went down to norfolk, virginia and stopped by a fire house to say hello to the firefighters there, and brought them a very very special gift. we have been talk about the white house beer the president brought him a case of the white house beer. >> obama: we have a whole case here, and i'll call you up and see what you think. >> i appreciate that too. >> yeah. where is our case? >> bill: well, i think the next time we have a white house briefing, they better hand out bottles, or there will be a lot of grumbling. we'll get into more with randi

weingarten, but first here is dan. >> overhead lines making news it looks like apple will introduce its newest version of the iphone next week, it will hold an conference next week. that hints to the iphone five. the phone expected to go on sale september 21st. >> bill: can i get in line now? this is my i-three. >> that's a very nice case -- >> bill: and the reason i have the rubber band is because the case broke and i can't find a knew one so i'm going to get the five as soon as i can. and get rid of my rubber band. >> another big step for the mars

rover, curiosity is now take pictures in 3-d. you can see the new photos on nasa's website, and 3-d glasses will help in viewing them and curiosity also drove another 98 feet toward its goal. >> bill: how fast does it move? it's something painfully slow. >> less than a mile an hour. >> so it goes as fast as paul ryan runs a marathon i hear ya. >> bill: this is though importance of staying away in those science classes. >> exactly right. >> and in hollywood, kelley ripa revealed that former new york giants player michael strahan will sit beside here.

he was one of 59 different people to audition for that job. the nfl player will keep his hosting duties on fox as well. >> bill: i don't know him. is he going to be all right? >> he is all right. >> he is a big guy. and he's a giant. >> bill: he's a giant. thank you, dan. randi, one of the things that impressed me last night, two things -- many things about julian castro but the first was in his very first sentence he said i'm here to endorse barack obama for reelection. >> are we doing a compare and contrast with the republican keynote. >> bill: unlike chris christie where he took 17 minutes to remember the name mitt romney or mention the name mitt romney. but the other thing that impressed me was he went out of his way to talk about education

and praise teachers. there is a contrast with chris christie. >> you had last night, between michelle obama's amazing -- remarkable speech and then julian castro and his brother and duval patrick and martin o'malley and ted strictland, you saw the difference between the democratic party and the republican party these days in full release. you saw a party that was focused last night on connecting people's values to the actions of government. the calls actually drive the action versus what you heard from the republicans was anger anger, anger anger; that the world is not the world of the 50s. it isn't. we wish it was. and actually the 50s wasn't so

great for a lot of people. >> bill: right. >> so you saw itself values start connecting that's ultimately what made america the country it is right now, and so between julian castro and michelle obama that's what you saw, and you saw it without the anger and vitrial. >> bill: yeah and they talked about their life experiences, julian having his mother there. and what he learned from his mother and grandmother, and michelle obama what she learned from her father and barack obama what he learned from his mother and grandmother, and that drives their policies so she was able to connect, right, their program, their policies

with where they are coming from. >> exactly. and it was both -- and this gets lost sometimes, it was both individual action. democrats believe in the power of individuals, of innovation of entrepreneurship, but it was how the government can help make it fair because everyone is not born to borrow ann richard's old term with a silver spoon in their mouth, so it is how you help those who start with struggle, find the american dream, and that's what you heard over and over again, but i was really struck by the fact that the -- on the stage -- and frankly all throughout the day -- you didn't hear the vitrial and anger that people have because of the strategies that mitt romney is espousing.

that's the strategy. the romney/ryan plan is what got us into the worst recession since the great depression. so they are saying go back to those strategies. and the democrats are saying this is not perfect, we need to do a lot more work, but let's build an enduring economy like we had after world war ii '5 that's the strategies i think you'll hear from bill clinton tonight, from barack obama on thursday, but the values -- last night was value night. >> bill: it was, and one of our callers earlier made an excellent contrast that in tampa the message was we don't like barack obama, and he is not what we bargained for, and you might have voted for him, but he didn't deliver. the message last night was all

the about people the american dream, values and how we can move this country forward and make sure that all americans are able to participate and have an opportunity to be part of that dream. it was very positive versus just -- in tampa, slam slam slam. >> one of the facts -- i'm sorry, i'm a school teacher -- [ laughter ] >> but one of the facts that struck me in the run-up to the convention is that when it comes to education, this is the first workout of bad economic situation in recession or depression where the -- where there's a disdance between the republican and democratic party. every other time they both inwoesed in education and infrastructure in order to make sure we can build back america. here the republicans in defiance

of the president trying to get the american's jobs act passed refused to find the money to put teachers back to work and we have 300,000 fewer teachers and i just saw that lots and lots of teachers have retired in the last couple of years, and we have the teacher workforce than we have had in decades in a period of time where we have to teach kids in a deeper more meaningful today. it's empowering -- we have a strategy of how you empower, not how you give handouts but how you empower people so they can see their lives for themselves and their families. >> bill: let's take a break, and when we come back i want to play for you the first lady's

kind of closing exer istatoin to the crowd. randi weingarten the president of the federation of teachers. your call at 866-55-press. join us live here in charlotte. >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv. this is the "bill press show." ♪

(vo) every news network will cover the convention. but only current puts you at the collision of tv and social media, providing unsurpassed insight into the

most buzz worthy tweets, posts and pontifications, from the entire social stratosphere including you. join in, tweet us, and you could be a part of our on-air and online coverage. >>now that is politically direct. ♪ >> announcer: live from the

democratic national convention in charlotte, north carolina, this is the "bill press show," live on your radio and on current tv. >> bill: 24 minutes after the hour now on radio row at the democratic national convention? time-warner arena. all of our viewers up in the -- they call it the frontier, in niagara university but all in the buffalo area i'm going to be up in buffalo doing a book signing for my new book "the obama hate machine," and i'll be at the talking leaves bookstore on friday september 14th. come on by, go to the bill press press.com to get all of the details. michelle obama ended with a really rousing call to pull

together and get the job done. here she is. >> we must work like never before. [ cheers and applause ] >> and we must once again come together and stand together [ cheers and applause ] . >> -- for the man we can trust to keep moving this great country forward, my husband, our president, barack obama! [ cheers and applause ] >> bill: that was a great moment there. >> it was. her whole speech was remarkable. what she did last night was she personalized a -- personalized the president in a way that felt authentic and relevant to regular folks, and connected his values and her values and the values they grew up with to the actions that the president and the democratic party are promoting. the whole notion of you know,

my parents needed fair pay, barack's mother was a single mother who was passed over so many times for promotion. that's what lilly ledbetter is about. trying to create a level playing field for fair pay. >> bill: now, you are one of our great labor leaders here in this country. you have how many members here from the american federation of teachers? >> we have -- we have delegates -- we have about 120 delegates who were elected by their localities and communities to come here and represent them. >> bill: that message of getting out there and working like we have never worked before -- is that resinating across the labor movement in this country? are the unions really going to be involved?

what do you hear from your fellow labor leaders? >> the answer is yes. what you have here is you have -- the difference between the -- the republican party that has more and more become the party of money, and the party of, you know, trying to create anger as a way of, you know getting people out to vote versus you have the democratic party that's trying to create a message of hope opportunity, empowerment, innovation and billing an enduring country, so we'll be out on the streets, knocking on doors, talking to people, and that's what we do best. and we're going to do it as well as we can. >> bill: yes, that's why they are going after you. >> exactly. >> bill: thanks so much for coming by this morning. >> thank you so much. >> bill: all right. and we'll be back diana degets

is our next guest here in charlotte, north carolina. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." ♪ but only current puts you at the collision of tv and social media, providing unsurpassed insight into the most buzz worthy tweets, posts and pontifications, from the entire social stratosphere including you. join in, tweet us, and you could be a part of our on-air and online coverage. >>now that is politically direct.

♪ >> announcer: broadcasting live from charlotte, north carolina, the site of the democratic national convention this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and on current tv. >> bill: hey, how about that julian castro, huh? what do you think? good morning everybody welcome back to radio row here at the democratic national convention in charlotte, north carolina, and the time-warner cable arena, you can see right over my

shoulder here, that's the big hall where tonight we will hear from vice president joe biden and senate candidate elizabeth warren. last night what a dynamic beginning, very exciting opening of this convention. the features of course were the keynote address by julian castro, and the evenings prime address by first lady michelle obama, but martin o'malley duval patrick, the list goes on and on and the video tribute to teddy kennedy was so exciting. i know you enjoyed being part of it and we will be glad to get your comments at 866-55-press. i'm very excited to welcome to our radio row studio, remember we were in denver four years ago, and the host was congress

woman diana degette. good to see you. >> good to be here. >> bill: i guess you are a little more relaxed than four years ago. >> it's a little more relaxing but i don't have to worry about are we going to be able to pay the police. >> bill: right. >> you know, bill when we had it in denver, you might remember the obama campaign decided three weeks before the convention that they were going to have the speech in the stadium -- >> bill: in the mile high stadium. >> yeah, so it really was a lot of effort for us to be able to pull that off. >> bill: well, let me tell you it worked. you were here last night, and looking at what you saw last week in tampa, and what you saw the first night in charlotte, what differences did you -- >> well, what i really saw last night was a whole series of

speakers talking about the practical legislation the president had signed the practical steps he had taken, and i felt proud to be part of that in congress that he had taken to better american's lives, and what struck me about the republican convention. they had no policy proposals. they don't want to talk about policies because they don't want voters to know about them. all they did was attack president obama for a whole week. i was real proud to be a democrat last night, because we had practical things that we had passed that will help ever day americans. >> bill: yeah, last night was here what barack obama has done and here is our vision for the future, and based on his values growing up and here is what we want to do moving forward. very issue oriented.

>> right. we're democrats we're issue oriented and when we talk about the lilly ledbetter fair pay act or when we talk about the affordable care act, one of the most moving speeches i thought was from the young woman who's little daughter who had a heart problem and who would have been capped out by the million dollars cap on her insurance policy. that's the kind of thing i hear from in my district families facing really hard issues like that. >> bill: dan if we can on the first lady's speech last night, one of the biggest reactions she got from the crowd, and again, contrasting tampa where ann romney and mitt romney you know, they really tried to say we really are the party of women. right, ann romney's famous saying, we love you women. the first lady last night talked about where the democrats show

their regard and their respect for women. here is that quick clip. >> we believe that women are more than capable of making our own choices about our bodies and our health care. [ cheers and applause ] >> that's what my husband stands for. [ cheers and applause ] >> bill: that's a real difference between the two parties. >> oh, yes. i think it's one thing to say oh, we have women -- we have republican women so don't worry, and it's a whole other thing to say we respect women as equals. and i'm going to be speaking later this afternoon, and that's what my speech is about, is women are not second class citizens, they really are equal partners, and we have been fighting for equality ever since we got the right to vote. so many of the republicans proposals, they assume that women are second class citizens.

diana degette our guest here in charlotte at the democratic national convention. join the conversation at anytime, give us at a call at 866-55-press. now i have got to ask you, you are part of the agenda tonight, so give us a little insider information about how that works. how much time are you given? i'm sure you have a time limit. >> yes, the time limit for the speakers is five minutes, which is excellent. you can really say something in five minutes. >> bill: oh yeah. absolutely. i started out in television giving 90-second commentary. >> right. >> bill: so every word counts. but five minutes is an eternity. >> yes. >> bill: so you wrote your speech and then you turned it in and it is vetted; is that right?

>> that's right. you write a first draft, they vet it. fortunately in this situation they liked it. they made edits and suggestions and then we rewrote it several times. the last draft of the speech i was working on sunday night at the table with my husband, and he was helping me and he said this is just like our law school days. >> bill: what would happen if you go off script? >> i think you can ask clint eastwood that question. >> bill: but they didn't pull the plug on him. >> i don't think they knew what to do. this is my fourth convention speeching, i don't think i would be invited back for a fifth if i went off script. >> bill: will you get to do a rehearsal. >> yes first they ask you to

speak, you write your speech it's vetted, and then -- later this morning i'll go in and do a dress rehearsal. >> bill: all right. >> i'll walk on the stage, they'll have it on the teleprompter, i'll walk through it so i feel comfortable, and then i'll get here about an hour before the speech to be ready to go. >> bill: and they'll show you where the colorado delegation is? >> it's not hard -- the colorado delegation is right on the floor behind illinois. >> bill: oh, woe. >> in case you haven't noticed we're a targeted state this year. >> bill: i want to ask you about that. we know from the president's travel those of us who work at the white house what the targeted states are. illinois ohio, nevada new hampshire, virginia, florida -- >> colorado. >> bill: colorado. right. and how does it look?

president carried colorado last time? >> the president carried colorado last time. george w. bush carried colorado. colorado is truly a swing state. we call at it purple state. i think if you look at the polling, it's neck and neck president obama may be two or three points ahead and has been steadily all year. the key voters will be the latino voters and suburban independent women in colorado. >> bill: yeah we have a great progressive radio station in denver, and we get many calls from that area where people are excited. i think the potential that colorado could make the difference in this presidential election. >> the first presidential debate is in denver. so people who might have been a

little tire -- this economy has really dragged on people, but they are now becoming energized. i think the more the republicans tell us their agenda the more the democrats get energized. >> bill: who are some of the other stars you saw last night? it was a very impressive line up, not that tonight won't be of course. but we saw some potential 2016 candidates maybe? or 2020 candidates? >> we just saw some people, i think really -- really putting a message forward. nancy keenan really really put it into a very clear speech about why for women's reproductive choice this election is so important. >> bill: devalue patrick -- >> yes, people had tears in their eyes with him. and so many of the speakers were just terrific. >> bill: i thought the contrast

between marco rubio and julian castro -- to have the castro twins -- >> i know. the best -- obviously julian gave a beautiful speech but to see the pride in his mother's face in the cut away to the mother, imagine -- imagine with her story having your two sons be so successful. >> bill: yeah. one is going to soon be in the congress, and the other mayor of san antonio. and that little girl oh god, took my heart. >> yeah. >> bill: here we are in denver -- no we're in charlotte this year. join the conversation at 866-55-press. we'll be right back. >> announcer: on your radio, on tv, the "bill press show," new on current tv. ♪

(vo) every news network will cover the convention. but only current puts you at the collision of tv and social media, providing unsurpassed insight into the most buzz worthy tweets, posts and pontifications, from the entire social stratosphere including you. join in, tweet us, and you could be a part of our on-air and online coverage. >>now that is politically direct. ♪

>> announcer: live from the democratic national convention in charlotte, north carolina this is the "bill press show," live on your radio and on current tv. >> bill: and just right up now on 12 minutes before the top of the hour this wednesday morning, september 5th. here in charlotte, north carolina at the time-warner cable arena, site of the democratic national convention. day number 2, looking forward to tonight's main address by vice president joe biden, and everybody is praying it doesn't rain tomorrow, it rained yesterday, boy, did it rain, oh my god, it rained on monday a little bit of rain threating today, but we want to get it all out of the way, so tomorrow

night, 74,000 people and the president of the united states who want that speech to go off with sunny skies at that hour of the day, star-filled skies at any rate. in the next hour we'll be joined by two very important leaders in the united states congress, congressman elijah cummings and congressman chris van hollen both from the state of maryland. right now we joined by key delegate congress woman degette. good to have you with us. >> it's great being here. >> bill: your presence and your colleagues next hour reminds us that a lot of what the president wants to accomplish cannot be accomplished unless he has a

democratic congress. >> that's right. a lot of the accomplishments we were talking about yesterday were achieved when it was democratic congress. after that it was the party of no. the republicans wouldn't even honor the [ inaudible ] of the united states. so a lot of us are saying, if you like what you're hearing, if you really think we need to move this country forward, then you need to elect 25 more democrats to the house, so we can keep the majority back and we need to keep the senate. >> bill: i was talking to a couple of people last night who were encouraging me to make that push. and also they were selling president obama if you want to get the job done -- john boehner

and eric cantor feel their job is to be roadblocks. >> right. >> bill: that must be frustrating for someone like you. >> yeah, it's incredibly frustrating for somebody like me. part of my job is getting the votes together and i worked on the affordable care act, i helped get the votes together when we passed the climate change bill in the house. there's so much we can do but what happens was the republican leadership said their number 1 goal was to defeat barack obama, so they put the good of the country aside. all of the things we should have been doing they just sat on it and with the affordable care act, they said we are going to repeal and replace. they had vote after vote to repeal it, but no vote to replace it, because they don't have a plan to replace it. and so i said what are we going

to do? and they said we'll figure it out after the election. we feel like we have 15 seats pretty much taken care of and i would really like to have more than a one-vote majority. so that's 35 but we think we can do it. >> bill: not 25 but 35. >> that would be best. >> bill: let's say hello to beverly from south field, michigan. >> caller: hi, bill. i just want to say that i am so impressed and proud of michelle obama and -- i'm proud to be a democrat, proud to be a woman, and a black woman, and i want to say that i'm a -- i'm a former school teacher, my son is also a

school teacher and he is a science teacher in south carolina, very poor school district he uses his own money to buy supplies. all he wants to do is in part the love of science to his kids and it really affects me when i hear the narrow crass, and materialistic definition of success that the republicans state all the time. >> bill: uh-huh. >> caller: because there are firefighters, police officers, school teachers that give of themselves every single someday. >> bill: hey, beverly, i hate to do this, but just in the interest time i have to interrupt. >> that pretty much said it all. it's not just about the top 1%. it's about the school teachers

and firefighters. my mom was a kindergarten teacher in the denver school district for 30 years. so all of us have families like that. it's like michelle obama said last night, every single family like that deserves this nation's thanks and deserves a high-quality life. >> bill: and this is the party fighting for the firefighters and teachers. congress woman thank you so much for coming in this morning. good to see you again. and we'll be right back to tell you a quick look about what the president is up to today on his way to charlotte. how about it? >> announcer: this is though "bill press show." ♪

[ ♪ theme ♪ ]

>> announcer: this is the "bill press show." >> bill: okay. here we go so president obama gets the daily briefing at the white house today, and then he he -- he'll probably do some work on the speech. he then hops on air force one and arrives here in charlotte, north carolina at 2:45 pm this afternoon, and then all of the fun starts. [ laughter ] >> bill: peter you think it's tough to get charlotte right now, wait until the president gets here. >> yeah, really. >> bill: congressman chris van hollen democratic leadership

comes up the top of the hour here. to stick around.

[♪ theme music ♪] >> bill: hello everybody and welcome to the "full court press" here from charlotte, north carolina and the democratic national convention on this wednesday september 5th, the second official day of the democratic convention and what a contrast between here and in tampa, particularly in the case of the dueling first engage in negative partisan

attacks against president obama. last night the first lady of the united states here in charlotte giving a very inspirational look at where she and barack obama came from, what values they learned, and how they are putting those values in play and the policies of the obama administration. what a powerful -- between those two, hands down michelle obama wins that contest. we'll talk about the first lady julian castro, and much more. but first take a quick time-out to get the latest today's current tv update from lisa ferguson out in los angeles, hi lisa. good morning. >> hi, bill. good morning, everyone. we are hearing a few secretly scheduled guests will make a few appearances. this coming first from cnn scarlet johanssen, natalie portman, and carey washington

after a performance by the few fighters. all three were supports of president obama in 2008. according to the most recent cnn orc poll, president obama still holds a lead over romney amongst women voters but the two are tied. the real polls to keep an eye on will be the ones out over the next couple of weeks after both parties have had their turn. of course president obama has a lot to live up to after his crowd rousing speech in 2008. this year he is hosting the first-ever convention to both start and end with events free and open to the public. it kicks off with carolinafest 2012, a downtown street fair on labor day, and will close thursday night when president obama if i recally accepts the party nomination.

the general public can get tickets through a process, and you can sign up online at barackobama.com. more bill press coming up. (vo) campaign commercials that run only on the internet are old hat this year, but in 1998, they were brand new. the first candidate to use web only ads, was former wrestler, jesse "the body" ventura, in his bid for minnesota governor. >>it's the new jesse ventura action figure. you can make jesse battle special interest groups. >> i don't want your stupid money. >>ventura was an interesting candidate because he ran as an independent and he recognized that was a great distribution system for him, and a way to bypass traditonal media and traditional political parties, and go directly to voters. (vo) and he scored one of the biggest 3rd party upsets in american politics. now, everybody puts campaign ads on the web. campaigns are set to spend 7 billion dollars on tv ads this year, but the right ad on the internet can take the

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[ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> announcer: broadcasting across the nation on your radio and on current tv this is the "bill press show." >> bill: hey what do you say, everybody, good to see you today, yes the republicans, they may have their marco rubio, but we have got the castro twins. oh, man, joaquin and julian castro, what a great pair, what a great performance last night here on the first night of the democratic national convention not to mention the rock-em

rock-em speech by michelle obama. thank you for joining us. it is the "full court press." we are here in charlotte, north carolina with about 20,000 democrats here, part of the democratic -- or making up the democratic national convention. we're here at the time-warner cable arena where tonight's festivities will include speeches by elizabeth warren, and vice president joe biden. we're coming to you live of course, on current tv and on your local progressive talk radio station whether you are listening or watching join the fun and give us a call at 866-55-press, and if you go to current.com and join our chat room, you can talk about all of the issues we're talking about, the speeches last night with your fellow full court pressers across the country. peter ogburn is here with me in charlotte, north carolina.

partygoer extrordanaire. >> when in rome go to parties. >> bill: that's right. in washington dan henning, and here joining us the ranking member of the house budget committee, rep meanting maryland's eighth district good to see you congressman chris van hollen here in charlotte. >> it's great to be with you. >> bill: it was very very exciting i thought yesterday. what a line upof speakers duval patrick, tremendous right? >> yeah, they were all terrific and the first lady was just a grand slam. >> bill: yeah, i thought it was great showing the policies of this administration. >> that's right. if you look at the story of

michelle obama and barack obama, it is the story of the american dream. these are two individuals who came from very humble begins worked really hard and they lived the american dream. they just want to make sure that that american dreams remaining available to everybody else, not people who got a big head start in life. and that's why they believe in investing in education our middle class, and why they want to take an balanced approach when it comes to reducing the deficit. >> bill: what contrast struck you between what we saw in tampa and what we saw last night. >> first of all the republicans only wanted to talk about the president. it was just about bad-mouthing the president. whereas here in charlotte, you heard about the decisive important actions the president took to save an economy that was sinking really fast, and lead to

29 straight months of positive economic job growth but you also heard from the republicans would do. you didn't really hear that, because they don't want to tell you what the implications of the romney/ryan plan for the american people. we have to tell people what the president plans to do, but also what the consequences are with romney/ryan for the american people. >> bill: their message was so contrasting. here it was here is what we have accomplished. >> that's right. and the president has said he wants go continue to pursue a policy for the middle class. not this trickle-down effect. we know that didn't work right? >> bill: we tried that.

>> we have been there, done that, and this is not a discussion about the past and george bush, this is what mitt romney and paul ryan are proposing over the next four years. it's one thing to have a theory before it has been tested but when it tests, crashes, and you say you want to try it again. it makes no sense. >> bill: nobody is closer to paul ryan in the sense of working alongside of them as a ranking member of the budget committee, and paul ryan's speech last week must have really struck you as -- what? unbelievable? >> yeah. >> bill: let me start with one, the fact that he blamed president obama for the fact that america's credit rating crashed. >> there you go. let me just say, i was very disappoint with that speech. i sit next to paul ryan in budget committees and we get

along personally. but that speech was -- it was like whack a mole afterwards for the fact checkers. >> bill: right. >> and when it comes to the credit rating, look, the reality is you had a tea party congress elected in 2010. they then said that they will crash the u.s.'s debt rating. they said we're going to jeopardize the full faith and credit of the united states unless you pass what was then the ryan budget. if you don't pass our extreme budget, we're going to force the united states to default on its debt. that's what caused the credit downgrade and it was a direct consequence as standard&poor's said in their statement that

causes the serious problem. >> bill: and the president was encouraging them to do what congress had always done in a bipartisan fashion and maybe hold their nose but to raise the debt ceiling because it had to be done because we had to pay our bills, so he was in no way responsible for the republican congress. as you point out in their statement, they named republicans in congress for why this happened. >> yeah, here is the thing, this is to raise the debt ceiling in order to pay for bills that we have already incurred, so what the republicans were saying would be equivalent to you and i getting up one day and saying we're not going to pay our credit card. we went shopping we got sent the bill, and now we're not going to pay you. if the united states were to do that you would crash the world

economy and the american economy with it. and republicans and congress members had voted for all of these things. after all you had two wars own the credit. you have the fact that you had back-to-back bush tax cuts that were weighted to the wealthy. all of those things helped to create the deficit that needs to be paid for. they vote to create the deficit and then they say they don't want to pay for it. >> bill: and by the way, all of which were voted for by paul ryan. >> that's right. paul ryan and the republicans in congress were a rubber stamp during the bush administration. >> bill: so congressman, you didn't give an hour address on the speech so it's kind of an unfair question, but outline if you can the impact of the ryan -- what the impact of the ryan budget be on programs

affecting the middle class or the pour. because they say right now we're the saviors of medicare. we're going to make sure it is there for future generations. >> this is truly orwellian language. the issue is not whether we need to reduce our long-term deficit we do. the issue is how they do it. and if you take the position they do, which is they will not contribute one more penny to reducing the deficit. so who do they hit? seniors on medicaid. if you are a senior with high-prescription drug costs you will pay more now. if you use preventive services for health care, you will pay now.

and because mitt romney wants to restore the overpayments to private providers, medicare will pay more so the insurance companies will pay more. and that will happen now, then of course the voucher plan kicks in where the value of your voucher goes down relative to rising healthcare costs, so their plans will really hurt seniors on medicare. medicaid, cut by one-third over ten years, two-thirds of seniors in nursing homes rely on medicaid. go down the list investments in our kids educations cut, investments in infrastructure roads, bridges, cut. and all of this in service to the idea that we have got to provide more tax breaks to

people like mitt romney. >> bill: more tax breaks to the wealthiest of the wealthy and another trillion dollars to the pentagon. >> that's right. >> bill: and if you put all of that money into tax cuts for the wealthy and the pentagon then you have to make up for it somewhere. >> that's right. and that's why the president said we need to take an balanced approach. the budget control act cuts a trillion dollars over the next ten years, some on defense, but a lot on non-defense. in fact as he has pointed out you take that discretionary spending down to the lowest level as a percent of our economy since the eisenhower administration. all he is saying is look people like mitt romney you have to pitch in a number more so we are not whacking people on medicare and students and asking the middle class to pay the entire

bill. >> bill: there were some real rising stars of the democratic party last night, julian castro and his brother joaquin, duval patrick, cory booker and the governor of maryland gave a great speech last night. will martin o'malley be running in 2016? >> i have no idea. i think we all should be focused right now on 2012 really. i don't know what his plans are. i don't know what the others' plans are. >> bill: deanna degette from colorado was just here and in terms of focusing on 2012 i take your point. everything the president wants to accomplish depends on having a congress that will work with

him? >> yes. >> bill: and that is as important of goal as reelecting president obama. >> you are exactly right. if you look at the president's record, passing wall street reform to reign in the big banking after their malfeasance those were all done where a democratic congress. republicans in the house voted againstal of those anyonings, and they are now blocking any further progress on the president's job bill and on his deficit, reduction plan. so yes it's really important that we have a house that will work with the president to get things done. >> bill: that means 25 seats and maybe just a few more to give us some comfort. >> that's right. and the momentum is growing. a lot of the house republican members want to run away from

their vote, but now it's much harder because it is the romney/ryan budget. >> bill: so it's a big agenda. it's holding on to the senate going back to the house, and he electing the president here. congressman you are playing are big role here and you have a lot to do and it's great of you to stop by and say hello. >> it's great to be here. >> bill: elijah cummings will be joining us in a little bit. i know you loved hearing michelle obama and julian castro. give us a call at 866-55-press. a message of hope and opportunity, move forward last night. 866-55-7737. we'll be right back. >> announcer: this is the "bill

press show." ♪ ♪

(vo) every news network will cover the convention. but only current puts you at the collision of tv and social media, providing unsurpassed insight into the most buzz worthy tweets, posts and pontifications, from the entire social stratosphere including you. join in, tweet us, and you could be a part of our on-air and online coverage. >>now that is politically direct. ♪

>> announcer: live from the democratic national convention in charlotte, north carolina this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and on current tv. >> bill: all right. you got it. 25 minutes after the hour here at the time-warner cable arena, site of the democratic national convention 2012 day somebody two. peter ogburn is here with me the rest of the gang up at the mother house in washington, d.c. peter i think i have broken the law. that this diet pepsi is 20

ounces. >> that is illegal. that is practically a big gulp you have in your hands. >> bill: good thing we are in new york. we have been talking about the big lineup last night. the big stars of the evening were certainly duval patrick, julian castro, and then the first lady of the united states. carol is calling from florida. hi, carol, good morning. what did you think? >> caller: good morning, bill i agree with you about michelle obama. >> bill: oh, boy. >> caller: she was fabulous i also thought the same thing about her in 2008. she is a powerhouse. >> bill: and what was great was she was so positive you know. she looked great. she spoke great and her message was so positive and powerful and meaningful i thought and one

that everybody could relate to. >> caller: absolutely bill. and that's why i briefly want to bring up having seen her last night, and the president, i guess tomorrow night. i just want to touch on last week's clown show over in tampa, and paul ryan, who i call mr. sarah palin, but also mitt romney who has got to be going down in history as the biggest flip flop politician there ever has been, and ryan who evidently he doesn't either realize that we live in the super information highway era or facts just are not going to get in his way, but as he is spewing out falsehood after falsehood after falsehood there is somebody checking that as he is saying it.

>> bill: oh, yeah. >> >> caller: so i find that stunning. i have enjoyed a middle class lifestyle. i was an american my entire life. i am a middle class person who is struggling to stay middle class. i sigh myself fighting slowly and slowly closer to poverty being a single mother. i have an 18 year old teenager who i do not receive child support for her, and i lost a job that had i not lost it, i could have retired in about five years. that was over a year ago they lost it. >> bill: yes, it is people like you that michelle obama was speaking to last night and the rest of the democrats, people like you a single mom, and middle class trying to make ends meet that mitt romney and paul

ryan don't give a damn about. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." ♪ cover the convention. but only current puts you at the collision of tv and social media, providing unsurpassed insight into the most buzz worthy tweets, posts and pontifications, from the entire social stratosphere including you. join in, tweet us, and you could be a part of our on-air and online coverage. >>now that is politically direct.

♪ >> announcer: broadcasting live from charlotte, north carolina, the site of the democratic national convention this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and on current tv. >> bill: all right 33 minutes after the hour now here we are at the time-warner cable arena in charlotte, north carolina the democratic national convention underway boy is it ever with a very very powerful opening night last night. the keynote speech by julian castro, and the main speech of the evening, powerful address by

the first lady of the united states. here with us now on radio row, the rank number -- ranking democrat the guy who drives daryle isaac crazy, for which we are all grateful good friend congressman elijah cummings. good to see you. >> good to see you, bill. >> bill: it's nice to have you come by. looking at last night, it was a powerful night opening night, wasn't it? >> it was indeed a powerful night and a very emotional night too, bill. i didn't expect to get emotional myself, but i did, particularly with the first lady's speech. >> bill: right from the heart, right? >> from the heart and she did a lot of things. she talked about her marriage

and how much she loves her husband, and -- and you could tell -- and then she talked about how their lives were similar, and talked about their struggle, and then -- and this was what -- this is the key, bill. she took us on a journey from her pain in how and it was turned into a fashion, and then to her purpose and to her mission. pain, passion, purpose mission. and i mean if you really think about that speech, that's what it was all about. >> bill: and about the values that she and barack learned from their parents and household into driving the policies today. >> and that's powerful. >> bill: yes. >> let me tell you why it's so significant. when you have a person who -- say, trying -- as the president did pushing the affordable care act. he gives you the basis for why

that is. >> bill: yeah. >> basically what she was saying is this is -- this is not just a political thing for us. this is something we really believe in. and that's a big difference. >> bill: and lived through. >> that's right. they didn't have to go four or five generations back. they actually went through it. and then she talked about eight or nine years ago that they were still paying off student loans, and she basically was saying that's why he has so much passion about increasing pell grants for example. and i told my wife, i said you know what is interesting, it's hard to mess with that speech. in other words if you want to criticize it i don't know what you can say. >> bill: i agree. it was genuine -- it was just -- and the perfect message -- and it was all

positive. i want to ask you, because i'm sure you didn't watch every moment of the convention in tampa. i hope you didn't have to much as much as i had to watch, but we have seen already a big contrast between the message we heard out of tampa and the message we have heard out of charlotte. >> yeah, it's a tremendously different kind of message. first of all, and it pains me to even have to say this, but we didn't get a whole lot of truth out of tampa, and that's significant. i mean if somebody wants me -- if you are asking somebody to trust you to do the right thing, trust -- you got to believe. you got to believe the person first. i don't care what it is, america, whatever. so that was a real problem. the other thing -- >> bill: because we couldn't trust or believe what we heard

them saying. >> right. right. and it's almost as if -- the whole thing about the welfare -- i know that didn't come up intentionally. they didn't bring it up during the speeches -- >> bill: but they are still running the ads. >> that's right. and that's a backdrop when you are listening to these folks you are saying is this true? is this false? and i think it was hard to come out really knowing still who romney is. i still don't know who he is. >> bill: yeah, and they didn't really tell you who he is. >> and didn't hell us. >> bill: coming back to last night, one of the things we see in the conventions, and that was true back in 2004 when america met barack obama for the first

time. what is your take on duval patrick? >> i thought he was extremely impressive, and when he said at the end the democrats need to grow a backbone -- >> bill: yeah that was it. >> i thought that that was quite appropriate. a lot of people in my district have been saying to me, tell the president to stand up against though blanks and fight back and i -- and -- and basically i any what he was -- as i listen to duval, i said to myself, you know, he is not talking necessarily about what the first we're fighting against, but he was talking about what we must be fighting for, and that's a big difference, you know? >> bill: uh-huh. >> and i think the first lady came out that way too. not who are we fighting against but what are we fighting for?

and even listening to castro bringing back to the democrats, these are things are fighting for, and have accomplished and by the way we now have a platform to build on in the future. >> bill: talk about lessons learned julian castro did that very well with his wife mom, and little girl -- >> she was darling. [ laughter ] >> bill: talk about, again his life experiences and the opportunities he had, and i think one of his most powerful statements congressman was when he -- he didn't mention mitt romney but he said when we achieve success, we don't slam the door to those coming behind us, and everybody knew exactly what he was talking about. >> exactly and we heard a lot of speeching during the republican convention.

but they never made the connection with what they were going to do to allow other people to have the same opportunities. nobody is knocking -- like the first lady says nobody is knocking you getting rich but at least give people an opportunity to do the same thing. i thought that came through quite nicely. >> bill: yeah it did. when are we going to have a convention in baltimore? >> i would like to see that soon. but trying to do a convention -- when i see what goes on here just to be getting in this building this morning -- [ laughter ] >> bill: i'm glad you made it. >> it's hard. >> bill: it's not easy. >> i'm wondering who pays for all of this. >> bill: baltimore is great

town. >> it is a great town. the orioles are [ inaudible ] in baseball. >> bill: the nats are also doing well in baseball. >> that's right. [ laughter ] >> bill: just one quick question, the answer to that question, which the republicans want to make the team of this election, and i say bring it on are we better off today as americans than we were four years ago. >> the country is better out of it, no doubt about it. we are coming back. unemployment rate was 10%, down to 8.3, and we still got a lot to do there, but on the affordable care act, done. lilly ledbetter, done. so we can go on and on. and i keep telling democrats, do not be on the defensive. this president has accomplished

more in three years eight months that most presidents achieve in eight years against maximum opposition. >> bill: right with zero cooperation from republicans. >> yes. the proposals that this president has represented, things as you know that republicans have favored in the past that have created jobs and they are saying no because they do not want to see him succeed. >> bill: that's right. congressman thank you for braving all of the security obstacles to get here. >> you know you are one of my favorite people. >> bill: i appreciate that very much. >> announcer: heard around the country and seen on current tv. this is the "bill press show."

♪

>> announcer: broadcasting life from charlotte, north carolina, the site of the democratic national convention, this is the "bill press show," live on your radio, and on current tv. >> bill: how about it. hey for me this is democratic national convention number ten can you believe it? but you know what? they are still fun. i was in the hall last night for the tribute to teddy kennedy and some of the speeches right after that, and sitting there with joe

madison, the black eagle on sirius xm and telling him still how excited i am particularly to see the face of the democratic party, and what a huge contrast the people here at this convention with the crowd you saw in tampa. it was a very upbeat spirit and a group that represents a wonderful diversity of our great country. for the purpose of reigniting the fire of the democratic party for hope opportunity, change and of course reelecting and carry on the agenda for a second term of president obama. friday september 7th, right? we end here in charlotte. very excited because one week from then, friday september 15th going to be up in buffalo, new york putting out the good

word to all of our good friends where i went to school in that greater front tier of upper new york state. come on by to the talking leaves bookstore next friday night, all of the details on the billpressshow.com. we'll talk about my latest book talk about the complain and have a good time. just a couple of highlights last night and then get back to your calls. duval patrick, real rising star gave a phenomenal speech the governor of massachusetts telling the democrats to go out and grow a pair and fight back. >> it's time for democrats to grow a backbone and stand up for what we believe! [ cheers and applause ] >> bill: yeah. well he didn't say grow a pair but you know that's what he was thinking. and then the keynote speaker, julian castro what a great,

great new face of the democratic party, and he poked a little fun at mitt romney when romney says hey, if you want to start a business and you don't have any money, don't worry about it borrow money from your parents. he got a great big grin on his face and said gee why didn't i think of that. >> i don't think governor romney meant any harm. i think he is a good guy. he just has no idea how good he has had it. >> bill: and then of course the first lady of the united states what an awesome job, what a tremendous job. she looked great. she sounded great, what an upbeat positive message. she talked about the struggles that she and barack obama had, very similar situations growing up as a young couple.

and how the lessons -- the values they learned, the lessons they learned from their lives shaped the policies and the priorities of the obama administration. very powerful message, the first lady saying looking out at this crowd and traveling around this country as first lady makes her proud to be an american. >> every day the people i meet inspire me. every day they remind me how blessed we are to live in the greatest nation on earth. [ cheers and applause ] >> bill: and she ended her remarks bringing the crowd to its feet by saying okay. now we know what we stand for, we got to make sure the american people understand this. we have got to come together as never before and fight like hell. >> we must work like never before, and we must once again come together and stand together

for the man we can trust to keep moving this great country forward, my husband, our president, barack obama! [ cheers and applause ] >> bill: great, great closing to a great first night of the democratic national convention. you were watching as well as i vince out in brian, ohio. thanks for joining us, what do you say? >> caller: bill thanks for taking my comment. i work the second shift so i saw from the middle of julian castro's speech and then i was able to watch michelle obama and as much of a grand slam as she hit, the comments that struck me were julian castro's comments where he compared what is going on now and it so defines who we are as a party. he said there is not a sprint. this is not a marathon.

this is a relay. a relay is a team event. marathons and sprints are individual. and we're passing off to those behind us. >> bill: yes, very, very powerful. and also by the way you could see it in his person, right? in many ways he was the one running up to take the torch take it to the next generation. very, very powerful. thanks for joinings. and what a great time we have been having here today. kicking off the second day of the democratic national convention. and i'll wrap up with a little bit about michelle obama with the parting shot coming up next. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." ♪

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♪ >> announcer: stephanie miller. the parting shot with bill press. this is the "bill press show." >> bill: okay. here we go on this wednesday september 5th, my parting shot for today. okay. i admit it i am in love with michelle obama. as a rule i tend to give all first ladies a break after all they didn't run for the job they just got drug along for the ride. but -- and i say this as a huge hilary fan -- i don't think we have ever had a more classy a more impressive a more dynamic first lady than michelle obama, and she certainly proved that last night. believe me, and -- first of all she has done a great job raising

her family. she is clearly the force that holds that family force despite impossible pressures on their every day existence. she also has embraced several important causes and made them her own. the house with garden childhood obesity assisting military families and convincing american companies to hire veterans. and she didn't stood to ann romney's level, she used her time to talk about her family her husband, and her values and their vision for america. and now we know why our poll numbers are so high. hillary clinton ran for president after serving as first lady. why not michelle obama? some day? just asking. that's it for us today, folks. we'll see you tomorrow here from charlotte. have a good one. democratic national convention

rolls on with all of us. >> announcer: this is the "bill press show."